So now the good times have ripened and grown rotten. I’ve lurked in the shadows here to watch the downfall of my enemies. I’ve been watching the terrible prologue to a scene that I hope will prove dark and tragic. I’ll head to France soon. It’s time to hide, wretched Margaret. Who’s coming?

She steps aside

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH and the DUCHESS of York

QUEEN ELIZABETH and the DUCHESS of York enter.

10

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Ah, my poor princes! Ah, my tender babes,

My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets,

If yet your gentle souls fly in the air

And be not fixed in doom perpetual,

Hover about me with your airy wings

And hear your mother’s lamentation.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Ah, my poor princes! Ah, my tender babes, my flowers who didn’t even get a chance to bloom. If your gentle souls are still flying in the air and have not yet landed where they will remain forever, hover around me with your airy wings and hear your mother’s lament.

15

QUEEN MARGARET

Hover about her; say that right for right

Hath dimmed your infant morn to agèd night.

QUEEN MARGARET

Hover about her and tell her she got what she deserved, with her children dead before their time.

DUCHESS

So many miseries have crazed my voice

That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute.

Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

DUCHESS

I’ve been crazed with so many miseries that my tongue has tired of lamenting and gone mute. Edward Plantagenet, why are you dead?

20

QUEEN MARGARET

(aside) Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet;

Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

QUEEN MARGARET

(to herself) One Plantagenet pays for the other. One Edward dies to pay a debt for the other Edward who died.